The 'Ring
by Kiro Angel
Summary: The rumors started the day that Severus Snape, greasy bat of the dungeons with no regard for personal beauty, came to school with a beautiful silver earring. No one knows why, or how, or who made it- it is a beautiful mystery. SSSB, Snack, slash, fluff, m/m


AN: I realized the other day that I have never written (or published) Snack. So I decided to remedy that. (This actually stems from the realization that I have never read a pairing [as the main pairing for a story] and not written, or at least started, a story for it. I have a couple of odd Neville pairings just hanging around in my story folder, looking lonely...)

This came to me while I was half asleep at my chiropractor's, which is where I get a lot of my plots, funnily enough. For some reason I just think that Sirius would make an awesome silver smith. I don't know why I think that, but I do. So... this.

For those of you who don't know, a silversmith is a person who works silver, like a blacksmith works iron. I think that they usually make items less delicate than jewelry, but I had Sirius make jewelry as well because why not.

Anyway, I do not own any of the settings or characters for this, all of those belong to JK Rowling and whoever publishes her stuff. Yeah.

And, of course, many thanks to alexsblackrose for her beautiful editing!

So, enjoy!

~Kiro

* * *

Everyone was talking about it.

No one knew where it came from, or why, or how it got there. It was mysterious, and that was the appeal. Well, that and the fact that it was completely out of character, at least in the students' opinions.

Potions Professor Severus Snape, greasy bat of the dungeons and proud owner of not one unnecessary fashion accessory or jewelry item, had come to school that fall with his left ear... pierced.

It was a broad ring of silver, threaded through the conch of his ear. It sat snugly in the center of the outside ear, wrapping like a hug around the folds there. The silver was inlaid with a delicate and precise pattern of mother of pearl that no one could get close enough to make out, but everyone agreed was tribal. And there, among the other inlays, one design in particular stood out. It was pure black, onyx, and rested right along the front of the band.

None of the students knew why the dungeon bat had such a beautiful piece of jewelry and, to all appearances, neither did the rest of the professors. No one among the student population had worked up the courage to ask why he had it or where he had gotten it. In fact, whenever anyone so much as looked at it for a moment too long, he snapped at them.

The first staff meeting after the beginning of school, two days into the spring term, Minerva asked him about the new addition.

"Severus, if I might ask- where did you get that marvelous work of art in your ear?"

She received a skin-blistering glare for the question, but surprisingly enough Severus gave an actual answer. Well, half-answer.

"Where does one usually get a wedding band, Minerva? Now, I believe that we were about to discuss the sixth year Gryffindors' abysmal test scores."

Everyone in the room gaped at him for a moment. Eyes flicked back and forth, wide in astonishment. A bird called from outside the window. Severus raised a singular eyebrow. At last, Flitwick managed to get his jaw back under him.

"Uh- uh- yes, they seem to be not taking the- eh- their schooling seriously at this point in time."

Severus sat back in his chair as the others brought their thoughts back to the topic at hand, reasonably smug at the reaction his words had prompted.

Everyone always commented on it. It was one of the first things that you saw when you looked at the man. First you saw the smile, then the curly black hair gathered into a ponytail, and then the broad silver armband which encircled his left bicep.

Most figured that it was a way to display his own work, for it was fantastic work. The silver flexed with his arm whenever his arm muscles stretched or contracted, and never fell off the bicep, no matter how precarious the perch seemed to be. The broad band was inlaid with a tribal design in mother of pearl, feathers against the shining background. And there, across the background of silver and mother of pearl, was a precise and swooping design in onyx. The stone swooped, spiked, and curved in a deadly pattern that, when you took a step back and looked at the design as a whole, bore a remarkable resemblance to a raven.

The owner of Midnight Moon Silver Smithy certainly was a master at his craft, if that was the best of his work. He always displayed the piece openly on his body, though whether he wore sleeveless shirts because of the heat in the workshop or the silver on his arm was yet to be discovered. There was not one customer who had spoken with him in person who had not commented on the armband. It certainly drew the attention, almost as much as the owner himself.

Sirius Black was a very enigmatic man, always with a smile and a joke to lighten the mood in his shop. He had a natural charm that was only aided by his good looks. He seemed rather fond of his muscles that he had earned from smithing the silver in his shop and took every possible opportunity to display them.

He flirted with every single witch and woman squib who walked through his shop door, regardless of age, attractiveness, or even availability. This made him very popular with the female crowd. He never accepted any date invitations nor did he imply anything other than light flirting, which led to several broken hearts among the girls. He never flirted with the men, which led to the impression that he had a very easy going girlfriend hidden somewhere. When asked, though, he would always say, "oh, the one is around here somewhere," which was neither confirmation nor contradiction. People learned to quit asking.

So the little shop on the edge of Hogsmeade was always filled with a cheerful mystery, something that Sirius himself seemed to excrete from his pores. It opened at exactly eight each morning and closed at exactly seven fifty each evening, no exceptions. Sirius made some of the highest quality silver work outside of goblin craftsman, and his work always ran more to aesthetics as opposed to function, as goblin-made wares did. The shop had more profits than any ten of the other Hogsmeade shops combined.

So it was his shop which Minerva McGonagall entered one bright March day some six months after the unexpected reveal of Severus Snape's relationship status. She was looking to commission a gift for her youngest and favorite nephew, who would be graduating with his Mastery in Charms in three months. What she found took her mind very far from graduation gifts indeed.

"Excuse me?" she cautiously approached the shop owner, who appeared to be hammering incredibly hard on a very fragile-looking pendant. After a moment, he set down his hammer and removed his protective goggles, turning from the work bench that ran through the workshop. It was only separated from the actual shop by a half-wall and a few shielding spells, so that Sirius could keep an eye on both his shop and workspace from either place. Squinting through the ward, Sirius rounded the half-wall, beaming when he saw who his visitor was.

"Professor McGonagall! How are you lately? It's been way too long, you should come visit more often seeing as my shop is so close to the school. Speaking of which, why are you here?"

Minerva, who had completely forgotten her quest when she saw the decoration on the man's arm, flicked her eyes to the arm band and back to his face.

"I have been doing well, thank you. Actually, I wished to ask you a question... Have you have ever been commissioned to make a... wedding band for Severus Snape? His piece appears to be quite similar to a few of your pieces here."

Sirius, if this was possible, grinned even broader.

"Ah, you mean it's a lot like my arm band? I suppose it does have a similar style, doesn't it? In any case, I can't give you any info on my other customers or their orders. Sorry, Professor."

Minerva narrowed her gaze at him.

"So he was your customer."

To this, Sirius merely smiled.

It happened during a third year Hufflepuff class. The young teens had been trying their hands at Pyro Paste, which is often used to repair items by melting them together. Severus had thought that it would be a relatively safe potion to use as an example of delayed combustion using common ingredients. Unfortunately, the entry into teenage years hails to introduction of hormones into the system, and one particular Hufflepuff was too busy drooling over the girl in front of him to pay attention to his potion. He added the newt blood directly after the ghost pepper seeds, resulting in a rather large explosion.

Severus managed to get himself between the students and the cauldron, turning his face away from the blast in reflex. As the beginnings of the blast hit Severus's earring, the silver band in his left ear snapped up an instant shield, keeping the professor and his students safe from harm. As the ringing in his ear ceased, the potions master surveyed the damage. Two desks were no longer useable, and soot had covered everything in a ten foot radius. He took a long, deep breath and with a quick scourgify, he vanished most of the soot from his body.

There was nothing but silence for a few moments as the children stared in awe and fear and Severus tried to control his feelings, breathing deeply. A second later, a pop sounded and one Sirius Black stood about two feet away from the potions professor.

His hair was tied up in its usual style and he wore a scarred leather work apron over his black jeans and sleeveless red shirt. His wand was out and at the ready, already pointed out at an imaginary attacker. He looked around, blinked at the wide-eyed children and destroyed desks, and lowered his wand.

"Not an emergency, then?"

Severus glared at the intruder to his classroom.

"No, it is most definitely not an emergency. What was that, Black? An emergency portkey on your armband linked to mine? Don't you think it would be more prudent to place the enchantment directly on my ring or, more importantly, make the enchantment more selective of circumstances?"

Sirius winced and looked down at the floor.

"Look, I'm sorry, Sev. I know that you sometimes get harassed, and you never tell me when it happens, and I thought that this way-"

"You thought that I could not handle myself in a fight against an exploding cauldron?"

He shook his head vehemently.

"No, no, that's not it at all. See, I had the enchantment keyed to where it would not activate unless someone who considered you an enemy tried to hurt you, so I thought-"

Severus crossed his arms over his chest and gave the other man a very unimpressed look.

"You thought that no student of mine would consider me their enemy. Especially, apparently, one who would put me in danger by exploding their cauldron. Is that right?"

Here, Sirius tried for a wry grin, raising his eyes again to look at the professor.

"Come on, I thought that all your students loved you? You know, the heartthrob of the teenage hordes, breaking hearts left and right with your luscious hair and colorful, revealing robes."

He looked hopefully at Severus, hoping for some sign of forgiveness, and received it in the form of a twitch of the lips.

"You should get back to your shop, Sirius. I'm sure that all the feeble old cows are missing your flirtations."

But Sirius came closer to the man in black, reaching out a hand towards his ear.

"But I need to reset the shield charm in your-"

"Later. For now, go. You may use the floo in my office."

With a sigh, Sirius turned and prowled over to the door which connected to the office. He waved one final wave before going through the doorway, leaving the door open without thought. Just before the floo flared, Severus called out one last warning.

"You had better not be interrupting my class again, Black!"

And Sirius called back a response.

"Sure thing, hubby!"

Then, the silversmith was gone.

Silence echoed through the room as twenty teenagers stared at their monstrous professor who had, for a moment, seemed almost human. All of the sudden, he was not the root of all evil, but a person with emotions and a husband. A husband who he had treated like a particularly unruly student, but a husband all the same.

The now-human professor's face slowly melted from its mildly amused half-smile back into his customary stony, malicious stare.

"Get to cleaning."

Terrified, the students did.

"Why an earring? And why does your husband possess an armband in lieu of something more traditional?"

Severus looked up from the chicken that he was carving into precise cubes to raise an eyebrow at the headmistress.

"We both work with our hands for a living. I did not want to ruin a traditional ring with a particularly corrosive potion, and he could not work with silver with a ring on his hand."

Minerva nodded, fixing him with hawk eyes.

"And the designs? A raven and a dog, I'm guessing?"

Severus nodded. He speared one of the chicken cubes with his fork and lifted it to his lips, chewing and swallowing before adding, as an afterthought:

"Besides the practical reasons to have an armband instead of a ring, I must say that he looks much the sexy and devilish Arabian prince this way. It certainly does not harm our sex life."

Minerva's mouthful of pumpkin juice hit a Ravenclaw across the aisle.


End file.
